Bolivia — Joseph Kesting

The Border

There are two main ways to get into Bolivia from the Atacama: take a bus or hop on a tour of the Uyuni Salt Flats that leaves from San Pedro de Atacama. Our original plan was to just take the bus into Bolivia and then hire a tour there, where it reportedly is cheaper, but we found out too late that no busses were scheduled for the day we wanted to leave. Since Micha and Gavin had a limited amount of time left we decided to just hire the tour so we could start on things a day earlier.

We piled into a van bright and early, making our first stop at the exit station between Chile and Bolivia. Borders down here work a little differently than those in the US and most of Europe. There is no one point that you pass that transitions you from one country to the next. Instead, you have to make it past the exit station of a country, drive through a bit of no-mans land, and then enter your destination country.

Our first problem appeared at the Chilean exit station. Pat, somewhere within Chile, had lost his PDI paper, a small, inconspicuous receipt that they stamp on your way in and way out of Chile. He had talked to some immigration officers back in San Pedro de Atacama that assured him that he would be fine but that did not stand up to the officers at the border who claimed that he had talked to the officers in green uniforms and not those in blue uniforms, whatever the hell that means. Some heated words were exchanged and eventually they just told Pat to leave the country, making some vague threats that he would never be able to return.

South American Lesson #1: Hold on to every single slip of paper that people in charge hand to you. You never know when it might come up again.

The entrance point to Bolivia was where the real shit show began. US citizens need a visa to enter into Bolivia and this visa costs $160. We had plenty of US currency but the problem was that it wasn't in absolutely mint condition. If a bill has a single rip, smudge, or crease, they are likely to reject it. By the end of things I found myself with two viable 20 dollar bills out of ten, needing to cover the remaining $120 somehow. Luckily I was able to piece together enough between some Bolivianos I had converted previously and a large loan of Chilean Pesos that I received from a very friendly French couple we traveled with on this tour. A shaky start to the morning but I was beyond relieved now that we were all through safely.

South American Lesson #2: Only bring crisp bills down here, preferably new hundreds. Its not a great feeling to have money in your wallet only to be told that it is trash.

The problem with this whole situation was that Micha, Gavin, and Pat had each pitched in some of their previously converted Bolivianos towards getting the group through the border so after the dust settled we had 50 Bolivianos, or about $7, across the four of us until we made it to Uyuni, a town three days away. I had heard Bolivia was cheap and I just had to hope that was doubly true.

The Tour: Day 1

After making it through all of that I was ready to enjoy the nature of Bolivia. We started out with a couple of relatively unimpressive lagunas before making it up to the Sol de Mañana geyser field. What really made this place special was the number of paint pots, or pools of boiling mud that ranged from grey to bright red.

There were also minimal rules surrounding these geysers and mud pools. While the geyser field in Chile had fences that kept people away from the geysers, here you could walk right up to them. One of them you could even walk up to and stick your face in the steam. Would not recommend this at all, it is an extremely disorienting and terrifying experience. Maybe those fences aren't such a bad idea...

Our next stop completed one of my main goals for this trip: see flamingos in the wild! This laguna definitely did not disappoint as there must have been thousands of them, all eating the algae that gives them their distinct color.

The Tour: Day 2

Started our day off at the edge of an ancient lava flow that has been eroded into a twisted series of walls and columns by wind and rain, giving us all a chance to practice our rock climbing skills. Many of these giant monuments looked insurmountable from the front but oftentimes a peek around the back revealed an easy, sloped route to the top.

The next stop brought us to Laguna Negra where we embarked on a short hike, although no hike at 15,000 feet feels particularly short. Luckily I was able to find the perfect chair-shaped rock along the way to rest in:

At one point along the hike we got absolutely swarmed by llamas who were out for lunch:

After having enough hiking for the day we hopped back in the car and drove to our last spot of the day, a town that was abandoned except for a bar. Naturally Pat spent 40% of our worldly wealth on a beer here. I hope it was the best beer you've ever had, Pat.

The town itself was quite creepy, dominated by three massive grain silos and a couple of abandoned trains. The outskirts even host a graveyard to complete the ambiance. This town must have been at one point some sort of major railway stop that has since disappeared from existence.

The Tour: Day 3

Finally, the Uyuni Salt Flats. This place is simply unreal, especially it at sunrise where the thin layer of water over the salt provides for a perfectly reflective surface. Easily top two sunrises of my life, only rivaled by the sun coming up through the clouds while I was camped above them on Mt. Rainier.

As the sun rose we raced along the flats with all of the other tours, feeling a bit like we were in Mad Max. When the sun was fully up we had made it to a spot where you could see nothing but white in all directions. This completely flat landscape made for the perfect spot for strange perspective pictures where lining up the fore and background can produce some interesting visual effects:

Our last notable stop was the train graveyard just outside the town of Uyuni, an expanse of land where steam engines and boxcars have come to rest. This really rounded out the post-apocalyptic Fallout vibe that the town yesterday initiated. I've always been fascinated with scenes like this; there is just something beautifully sad about an object that was at one point such a centerpiece of peoples' lives sitting unused, crumbling back into dust.

With this, our final stop of the tour, we found ourselves in Uyuni, the site of the much fabled ATM. With money in hand and plenty of time to kill we grabbed a couple of beers and played guillotine, our favorite and only card game, at one of the local cafes. One thing led to another and we found ourselves a little tipsy on the night bus heading to La Paz. Oh well, that's really the only way to get any sleep on these busses anyways.

La Paz

Our arrival in La Paz was less than graceful. We stumbled out of the bus at 4:30 in pitch darkness feeling like all hell from the day before. Luckily we booked a night in a party hostel so we were bound to get some quality sleep in before daybreak came around. Since our room wasn't ready yet we crashed in the TV room, which was supposed to be closed for the night. About an hour later a group comes roaring into the room, flips on the lights, sees us sleeping there, and asks if we can leave. After we are tell them no and while they are trying to bargain with just watching Netflix with us in there with them, I squint through my sleepy haze and recognize one of them as a drunk guy we stayed with all the way back in Buenos Aires. Small world in the party hostel scene I guess.

La Paz is quite the interesting city. Filled with hills and cable cars, the real estate situation here is opposite that of most other areas of the world. In most cities you pay more for the views but up here, due to the highest points being above 14,000 ft, you pay for the oxygen, resulting in the most prominent neighborhoods being located at the lowest points. The gondolas connecting these hills are incredibly modern and by far the best way to travel around and see the city. One of our rides took us over an open-air market that stretched for at least two miles down a single avenue and branched off far down several side streets as well. I've never seen anything like it and I can't even comprehend how much human effort it took to set so many tents up.

La Paz is also the seat of the Bolivian government, including Bolivian's president Evo Morales. A controversial figure, this man has done much for the indigenous population of Bolivia while promoting certain environmentalist policies. On the other hand, according to our walking tour guide, he is establishing himself as a bit of a dictator with some very friendly views towards the coca plant. The coca plant is a very important part of the culture of indigenous peoples and I totally support him advocating its use for traditional and medicinal reasons, but when a prison located a couple of blocks from your office has several functional and well-known cocaine laboratories within it, something is a little fishy. Seriously, look up San Pedro prison, its a fascinating place. Apparently you used to be able to, and probably still can if you talk to the right people, bribe the guards of the prison and take tours of the place, earning yourself a little souvenir bag of the white stuff for your troubles. This is all according to our walking tour guide so I can't verify if its still true or not but it makes for a fascinating story and in fact there is at least one book out there from the perspective of someone who stayed in the prison for several weeks of his own accord.

Death Road

Obviously we couldn't resist checking something called the Death Road out. This road, which used to kill an estimated 200-300 people a year before a new paved road was put in, makes for an excellent mountain bike trip that provides for nearly 40 miles of downhill riding in total. Rimmed by several cliffs multiple hundreds of feet tall with nary a guard rail in sight, this road really made me grip the hell out of the brakes, at least until I put on Rage Against the Machine and gained a little more confidence. Still, every cross that we passed was a chilling reminder that this road is no joke and we even saw the body of a van laying at the bottom of one cliff, a friend of our guide that had died just a couple of months earlier. If you go to La Paz you absolutely have to try this out but for your sake don't get overconfident.

Food in La Paz

We had two life-changing culinary experiences in La Paz. The first was the best choripan, which is essentially a hotdog in a hamburger bun, I have ever had. Seriously, if you are in La Paz go to the Red Line's Estación Central, go outside of the station and turn right where you first see a line of street vendors. Four stalls down you'll see a no-nonsense lady ready to deep fry chorizo and serve you up some deliciousness. Don't forget the green spicy sauce which really pulls it all together.

The second experience was dinner at Gustu, one of the finest restaurants in La Paz and currently number 28 on Latin America's 50 best restaurants. Here we indulged in a 19 course meal complete with drink pairings, experiencing Bolivian cuisine from all angles. Since I'm basic, I took pictures of every single course so I could walk you through all of them:

Six-month aged ham and pickled fig (bone just for presentation)

Fried kale with fermented miso sauce. First kale I have ever liked, which, I maintain, is solely a garnish for Pizza Hut salad bars

Beef heart cooked on a salt block accompanied by peanut sauce

Alligator tail sourced from the Amazon topped by pickled watermelon rind and strawberry

Three different types of quinoa on a bed of mint sauce

Heart of palm covered in banana balsamic vinegar

Local Bolivian potatoes, onions, and other vegetables in chicken sauce

Trout from Lake Titicaca accompanied by fried kelp also from Lake Titicaca

Pig ears in miso sauce. As you can see I got a little too excited and started eating this one before I snapped a pic.

White chocolate three different ways with raspberries

The first good coffee I've had in months accompanied by chocolates

All of this along with the variety of cocktails, wines, and liqueurs they provided us made for a symphony of flavors that left us all quite satisfied.

After this legendary last supper it was time to say goodbye to Micha and Gavin. These two came down practically on a whim and I am beyond thankful that they did. It feels very meaningful making these sorts of memories, the ones that we will talk about for years, with friends that will stay in my life for a long time to come.

And with this Pat and I are alone for the first time in nearly two months. In fact we have only spent four days unaccompanied by anyone else on this trip, a fact that we never expected coming into this trip. We head into Peru next for our big expedition of the trip: the Salkantay trek and Machu Picchu!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Copacabana and Isla del Sol, an island located in the middle of Lake Titicaca: